The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-11-17
ENSllAGE RATIONS.
Notes and Suggestions Submitted by an
Experienced AgricuIturist.

-
Experienced Agricuiturist.
The individual practices of the silo
owners of this country are so varied
and the plans of raising silage so diff
ferent that it is difficult to lay down
any definite rules in regard to silaee
feeding. The original idea of ensilage
was TO secure by some means as great
growth of fodder as possible. paying
no attention to grain bearing along
with stalk growth. By this plan silage
was largely 'greenness and water, :"
and In feeding it great quantity was
necessary for ration, and so, perforce,
grain in form of oats, bran. linseed
meal, and like heterogeneous foods had
TO be fed to give a balanced ration.
Under this system we heard of cows
consuming bushels, each, of silage per
day, and large grain ration in ad-
dition. In the early days of ensilage
men told me they fed from seventy-fve
to one hundred pounds per day to
grown animals, and the effect was
much as it would be to gorge an ami
| mol OlilcI SOII VI lOOU.
1t was not long before the advocates
OF exclusive silage feeding discovered
that the ration was too bulky, and that
not only was it better to direct the
growth of the silage fodder towards
grain-bearing, but that there must be
rotation of crops on the farm. This
implied some clover and tame hay,
certain amount of stalks from field corn,
which should be fed along with the
| Silage; and so from these causes there
has been reduction in the amount of
the daily silage ration; and to INV
knowledge last winter from twenty-five
to fifty pounds, along with other feed
ing materials, was about the average
amount fed.
Necessarily there was a curtailment
Of the silage ration when the idea of
grain growth was made prominent in
the raising of ensilage fodder. Grad
ually, in this, the amount of ensilage
seed corn has been reduced to about
twelve to fourteen quarts per acre, and
this thinning out not only gives strong,
lusty stalk in place of the spindling
one, but big, well developed ear of
grain on about every stalk, that adds
fully one-half to the ration, pound for
pound. This season 1 drilled in my en-
silage in rows three feet eight inches
apart, 4 kernel each six or eight inches
in the row, and the result has been
more like field corn in its development
of grain-not attempts at ears, but
full-sized ears, with filed and plump
kernels. The stalks growing twelve
and fourteen feet high, will average
twenty good ears to each twenty-five
stalks, and as we cut them into the silo,
the silage as it came falling from the
''snoot," seemed white with its mixture
of corn, and must make a ration that
has more than twice the feeding value
of silage that bears no grain-for the
latter is largely lacking in sugar and
starch-and a proportionate smaller
amount must have equal feeding value.
The cutlery against silage for the
dairy has ceased, and no one now dis
putes the excellence of milk made from
a good silage ration-and to do so
would he TO fly in the face of facts
and so how to feed silage after it has
been cooked" in the pit, is of some
moment. The silagc is ready to feed !
as soon as the temperature has fallen 10 !
about eighty degrees, which it seems to !
do readily in about three weeks, after
putting on the covers. A very desirable
thing to do, when ready to commence
feeding, is to remove the covers all off
from one pit, and remove the silage as
wanted evenly from the surface. This
method gives the silage chance to be-
come "aired" and lose its fresh, and |
often somewhat pungent, odor; and
then it can not give to the milk any
foreign flavor. In feeding the silage
should be removed from the surface of
the pit so frequently that there is no
chance for any change to occur in its
chemical character; and observance of
this rule. even with what is known as
sour silage, prevents any deterioration
in the milk.
When bran is fed, it is desirable that
the amount should be divided and put
on the morning and evening silage
feeds. The two are then eaten together,
and go through the animal laboratory
together for digestion and assimilation,
and no known method of feeding can
better this.
Hardness in feeding silage is great
ly promoted by using a two-wheeled
Such barrow is not
inclined to tip over, and if made to
hold about five OF six bushels, it will
contain silage sufficient for about
twelve cows. By weighing few scoop
shovelfuls, one can quickly learn to
weigh ration by the eye and hand,
and the work of feeding a stable of
COWS or steers is quickly performed,
and the bran can be added to the sill
age in the manger, and the proportion !,
for each animal can be varied as cir
may warrant.-John Gould,
IN Rural New Yorker
Processes of BURGLARS